San Diego Speed Networking, The Show Must Go On!

I founded San Diego Speed Networking Dennis-Michael Broussard of Silk Road Productions over a year ago to create a professional networking event that overcame these obstacles:

a) Networking at loud bar with music where people are yelling over each other because they can’t hear
b) People aimlessly wandering around in an attempt to meet everyone with no formal introductions
c) The awkwardness of interrupting a conversation or leaving a conversation

Here’s how it works.
-Each company attends with TWO representatives If you only have one person at your company then attend with a friend/ referral partner/ someone you collaborate with.

-Each company receives a table top to set up marketing materials, promo items, visuals, etc. Rep 1 from the company remains at the table while Rep 2 from the company is assigned to move around to each table

-When the Speed Networking sessions begin Rep 2 moves to the table next to table and 3 minutes are alloted for each session. When time is up Rep 2 continues to move to the next table until every company has had a chance to meet every other company.

Each person will connect with everyone in the room. The speed networking session is long enough to establish a connection and short enough to move on if no connection is made. At the end there is a mixer. That’s the event in nutshell.

I’m having many challenges with my marketing campaign for the event. It’s extremely frustrating. As a Marketer I know exactly what needs to be done but don’t have the means to do it.

I don’t have access to my domain name so I can’t redirect the website currently hosted under the Silk Road Productions Website. The domain was purchased by former partner who has the password and has not disclosed it. I tried calling GoDaddy they were no help. Any SEO work I attempt will not be credited to: www.sandiegospeednetworking.com since it’s not hosted as its own entity.

I’ve also been unsuccessful in hosting a wordpress blog within the site. I’d like it embedded into my site as a page but it only links to the blog on the wordpress site. Dennis-Michael has done a great job with the site given that neither of us are developers or designers. I’ve become so discouraged with the marketing that I’m compelled to cancel the event, but we’ve already invested a lot and thus the show must go on!

If you read this entire Blog you get a $10 discount to the event. Regular price is $50 per company. My blog readers get in for $40. That’s $40 for two people. Includes hosted appetizers! Twitter followers @SDSpeedNet also get the discount! If you have any feedback for my website, marketing strategy or event in general please comment! I hope to see everyone there. Reserve your spot today space is limited!

A Clear New Vision

For those who don’t already know I resigned from my position as a Marketing Consultant at Clear Channel Communications. I begin my new venture at with 3K Interactive on Monday Sept. 22nd. I am excited to move into Online Marketing. The Internet is growing exponentially and the opportunity is unlimited! I’ll be a true consultant, resource and connector for my clients.

The main question I get is “Why did you leave?” First I’d like to say that I absolutely loved working at Clear Channel. For almost 2 and 1/2 years I have felt nothing less than proud to represent the company. It was a difficult journey and succeeding there is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Long nights, stressful days, driving all over town, cancellations, internal battles etc, but my hard work at Clear Channel was well worth it! The things I learned about building client relationships, developing targeted campaigns, interpersonal relationships, having a strong work ethic and marketing in general are priceless! The perks of working in radio aren’t bad either!

After working there I am confident that I can take on any challenge and succeed. It was a stepping stone that opened up so many doors. I didn’t leave because I wasn’t doing well or I didn’t like the company. The more I grew in my position there, the more I wanted to offer more to my clients. By creating campaigns for people only within Clear Channel Properties I became extremely limited. I wasn’t creating targeted campaigns. I was reaching out to thousands of people with a commercial that probably only 1% of listeners actually cared about. Out of those 1% only another 1% actually remember to go home and look up info about the ad. Radio is the largest form of word of mouth and works great if you’re a huge corporation with a large marketing budget but for companies who can’t afford to spend as much as Coke or McDonalds the online presence is essential before considering any other medias. Thus my transition to online marketing.

I’m an Entrepreneur at heart. I’m always formulating new ventures, business ideas and plans to grow my career so the transition to online marketing is perfect because . I never sold a campaign that I didn’t believe would work but the more I learned about marketing, I realized that there is more that I can do to help businesses grow. I will now create campaigns where my clients will be found by consumers specifically searching for their product/service instead of trying to find consumers who probably don’t care. My campaigns will be permissive and the advertising will be sought after rather than interruptive like most TV and Radio Ads. I will help my clients build a community to really engage their customers. I will optimize websites to increase conversion rates and I’ll be able to track everything which will allow me to fine tune and customize the campaign as it progresses. I could go on and on about what I’m now able to offer with the online world! If you’d like to learn more about my new marketing resources please don’t hesitate to reach out to me!

So there you have it! The real story about my transition and new business venture!

Blogger’s Block, No More!

Recently I’ve been getting writer’s block (or blogger’s block in this case) when writing blogs. I realized I’ve been putting a lot thought into my blogs because I want them to be fine-tuned without any errors to sound professional. Someone brought to my attention that I just need to sound like myself when I blog. Well, “myself” does not have any problem with thinking of things to say or talk about. I’m good at impromptu and adapting my answers and comments to any given situation. I speak what’s on my mind and my passion for reflects in my delivery. From now on I’m adopting the same policy with blogging as speaking. I want my blog to reflect my unique personality, not sound like a corporate website. Blogs are unique to each individual and for the most part have no set standards, formulas or structure.

Now that I understand the power of blogging, I’m going to write what’s on my mind and if someone doesn’t agree, then they should start their own blog.

Another step forward to Marketing Melodie 2.0. Thanks to everyone who’s been supportive of my web transformation. Even when I have technical questions my new web community has been quick to answer them in order to guide me in the right direction. Happy blogging everyone!